Asia Summary and Highlights 11 February
White House says 25% steel tariffs will apply to all countries
Asia Session
The broad risk sentiment is soft on Tuesday's Asia session as the White House says 25% steel tariffs will apply to all countries without exception (back and off with Australia). While the exact date to be imposed will likely be around March, allowing countries to negotiate with Trump in the meantime, there is a potential where these tariffs will bite in. All three U.S. major equity indexes are in the red, so as the Chinese and Hong Kong equities. AUD/USD is down 0.07% to 0.6273, NZD/USD is up 0.06% to 0.5644 while USD/CAD rose 0.13%.
With no break for the tariff man on chatters regarding the steel and aluminum tariff, Trump also left remarks on the Gaza deal and threatens Hamas to release all hostage by Saturday. USD is broadly higher and see USD/JPY up 0.01% to 152.01. U.S. Treasury Yields are lower in the front and higher in the back. Else, EUR/USD is unchanged and GBP/USD is down 0.04%.
North American session
US markets were resilient to Trump’s latest tariffs with equities advancing and UST yields initially slipping before correcting higher, though the curve steepened. FX trade was quiet though USD/JPY saw early slippage to 151.60 before returning to near 152 guided by UST yields. EUR/USD was quiet slightly above 1.03 though EUR/GBP edged up to .8330 as GBP/USD saw modest losses. AUD/USD was firm near .6280 while USD/CAD extended the correction from Asian highs to near 1.43.